Puck of Pook's Hill; or, my middle-brow reading list

Kicking around for things to do with the new blog, I figured I'd post a note for every book I finish. I have trouble finishing books, so this may be a small category.

Rudyard Kipling's Puck of Pook's Hill

One of the kids' favorite topics of mealtime conversation is what might have happened on our little third-of-an-acre of the prairie in past years, and what might happen right here in the future. That's exactly what Kipling does with a little patch of Sussex in this book, and it's a delight. He continues the idea in his short poem The Land, which follows the ancestors of Puck's Hobden through the millenia.

Come to think of it, that was odd

Back in 1980 or '81 a girl named Stefania Somethingorother joined our high school class for a few months. Her family had moved from Oman where her father had been stationed (she said), and it made for an interesting story. Now, though, I wonder - a guy stationed in Oman, just across the Gulf of Oman from Iran, at the end of the Iran hostage crisis (there's a link for you youngins), is suddenly sent to a perfectly quiet little Illinois farm town of 800... what the heck was going on?

I was reminded of that by the obituary of David Smiley, who, among his other improbable activities, served as the commander of the Sultan of Oman's armed forces.